WhatsApp has 1.2 billion users but does not make money. That is about to change

WhatsApp has positioned itself as the most used Western application, a monster with more than 1.2 billion active monthly users. However, there is a small big problem that so far have not managed to solve: how to monetize the use of your application.

Something is clear, WhatsApp does not want to put ads and this, so far, is discarded. The option of charging an annual fee does not seem to like Uncle Zuck much either.

So the plan is to take advantage of the use of the application and offer those 1.2 billion users to the companies. How? As a communication channel between companies and end customer.

An offering of millions of users without seeming to be selling us

Ok, WhatsApp is already the most used and the next step is to make money, how to do it without users bothering?

Easy, selling business profiles and tools to companies to get in touch with us, where the advantage is that we would still have control over the conversations.

That is, we can block and report as SPAM, but it is a fact that at the moment we are the most important asset for WhatsApp.

WhatsApp users map

A few months ago began with the first tests of this system where companies would have access to a business profile that would not be tied to a phone number.

This profile would have the ability to directly contact customers and offer assistance services, sales, advertising and other activities.

Sounds familiar? Of course, because it is what many companies, girls and big companies are currently doing, to be in contact with their users, so the only thing WhatsApp will do is to make it official through verified profiles.

This will make users feel confident that they are talking with an official company representative.

In addition WhatsApp promises that they will be attentive to the sending of messages, since if the profile receives several locks over messages or is marked as SPAM, the company will lose the verification of their profile.

Having this profile will have a monthly or annual cost for companies, but in return they will receive access to a large database filtered by age, region, country and even socioeconomic condition when informing from which device the application uses each user.

It is not known when this will go into action, but right now the company has placed ads to hire sales and marketing staff, product manager and even a commercial communications manager. As we see, WhatsApp is serious about this topic.

According to some sources, WhatsApp is looking to focus its strategy on a start in emerging markets, such as Brazil and India, so the positions ask for experience in international markets.

Part of the company’s new strategy can be seen in the tests they have started in India where they are experiencing a WeChat style payment platform in China, where it has become a phenomenon and is rapidly replacing the use of money, credit and debit cards.

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has talked about his new business platform, referring to it as a channel to ask your bank if a transaction was successful, or our account has been exposed to fraud.

We may even contact our airline to find out the status of an itinerary or to know when a flight is delayed.

Best of all, this would be through the same application and at no additional cost to us users.